The archived blog of the Project On Government Oversight (POGO).

Oct 29, 2010

Flightglobal Poll: Did British Move Sound "the Death Knell" for JSF Variant?

While certainly not scientific, Lockheed Martin can’t be too happy with the results of a recent Flightglobal poll on whether the British shift from buying the F-35B STOVL (short take-off and vertical landing) version to the F-35C carrier variant “sounded the death knell” for the F-35B. Lockheed is the prime contractor for the Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program.

On its website, Flightglobal posed the question, “Has the UK’s dramatic switch to the F-35C sounded the death knell for the Joint Strike Fighter’s STOVL variant?”

"No” garnered 43 percent of the vote, getting a plurality of the three responses allowed by the poll. But it’d be a stretch to say the nays won. “Yes” garnered 41 percent and the response “All JSF variants will die” got 15 percent of the 2012 votes cast in the poll.

When “Yes” and “All JSF variants will die” are added together, 56 percent of respondents thought the F-35B is in the danger zone.

Flightglobal never defined what “sounded the death knell” actually meant and it’s not clear who voted, though one would imagine readers of Flightglobal are an unusually well-informed bunch when it comes to aviation and defense issues.

The F-35B model already is estimated to cost more than the other two versions of the JSF. According to an article in Armed Forces Journal, the per-unit acquisition cost of the F-35B “has exceeded $120 million — almost triple the amount envisioned by the Joint Initial Requirements Document for the Joint Strike Fighter.” UK Prime Minister David Cameron recently said the F-35C is “more capable, less expensive and longer-range” than the F-35B. The “B” model also faces a more daunting set of technical challenges than the other versions.

Besides the two versions mentioned above, the JSF program also includes the F-35A conventional take-off and landing variant, which is slated to be built in the largest quantities of the three different versions. The entire program could cost up to $382 billion, according to one Pentagon estimate, although Lockheed claims it won’t ultimately cost that much.